Creative Ways to Market Your Business That Work

How to market your business

Small business owners don’t need a big marketing budget to make a big impact on their bottom line. Instead, entrepreneurs can take advantage of their creativity in their attempt to spread the word about their business. Here are 11 examples of small business owners who have been able to successfully market their businesses on a budget by relying on their creativity.

Social media campaigns

This summer, we created the terms #WeddingBlissWednesday and #TipsfromTiff social media campaigns. Every week, we post information and photos related to events and event planning. We've continued this campaign over the past three months and have increased traffic to our home site by 62 percent and our online presence by 40 percent. – Tiffany Gillespie, event coordinator, To The "T" Events

Creative mailings

After launching my website in May of 2010, I had to figure out how to tell the world about Cheek'd. I decided to target 20 of the major editors in New York by messengering a sole Cheek'd card that read, "this card could change your life" in a mysteriously packaged black envelope. A few weeks later, the New York Times coined us "the next generation of online dating." The article crashed my site gave us orders all over the world and even produced a phone call from one of Oprah Winfrey's producers! – Lori Cheek, founder and CEO, Cheek'd

Driving across country

I am marketing French Fry Heaven by taking a food truck 4,500 miles over two weeks this September to share fries and franchise opportunity with potential franchisees. I will be tweeting and sharing status updates, photos, videos and blogging throughout his entire trip, dubbed 'Fries Across America.' – Scott Nelowet, CEO and founder, French Fry Heaven

Make a splash

We FedExed 25,000 chocolate-covered grasshoppers to 5,000 influential people across the U.S. We did this to market our rebrand from GotVMail to Grasshopper. It was a HUGE success for us. The video we created to drive the conversation online was a great way to complement the direct marketing strategy. It brought together old-school tactics with new-school media. –Taylor Aldredge, ambassador of buzz, Grasshopper

Giving talks at conferences

I started my firm 12 years ago and have gotten dozens of clients over the years by giving talks at conferences, trade shows, industry events, universities and others. I have also written articles for online publications, mainstream media and blogs. – Paige Arnof-Fenn, founder and CEO, Mavens & Moguls

Stand-up comedy

Probably the most creative (or unusual for most people) way I market my business is through my stand-up comedy. I run a business teaching people how to be more effective using humor in the workplace, but also do stand-up comedy on the side. I will sometimes tell jokes and stories that also tell the audience about what I do and what I offer. I've had people buy my book as a result of seeing my stand-up. – Andrew Tarvin, humor engineer, Humor That Works

Showing off your product

George Blaisdell started Zippo in the midst of The Great Depression. Many of his early marketing techniques were simple yet effective. The marketing game has changed since then, but the same basic rules of success still apply: make a quality product, know your audience/consumer and know how to market your product to them. Blaisdell gave lighters to bus drivers and train conductors when they came into town because he knew his customers rode the rails rather than owned cars. Also before leaving Blaisdell's office, employees, customers and other visitors had to test their Zippo lighters against his table fan to see if the lighter held its flame. – Zippo Manufacturing Company

Becoming a billboard

My wife and I invented and started making billboards that attached to bikes. We set up a website called Bike Billboards. We took them and market-tested them along the beaches of Southern California and every time we did, we had new business and lots of fun and exercise as well. We helped many businesses get noticed. We also started making and selling them with inquiries from around the world. We didn't spend or make a lot of money, but it helped augment our limited Social Security income and got us up and off the sofa. – Richard Pawlowski, co-founder, Bike Billboards

Creating limited-edition products

I am marketing my upcoming novel by teaming up with a beauty company, a fashion designer and jewelry company to create limited-edition collections of products, including nail polish sets, dresses and charms. Those products are based on the characters of the book, thus allowing the book and products to be featured on the beauty and fashion pages of magazines, not just the books page! It has expanded the reach tremendously. – Emily Liebert, author of "You Knew Me When" (NAL Trade 2013)

Charitable marketing

I have a photography business and one of my divisions focuses on pets. I've found some of the best marketing is charitable m arketing by partnering with a local rescue or shelter. I offer a discounted session fee to their donors and 100 percent of the session fee gets donated by me back to the charity. It raises funds for the shelter, gives the donors a special opportunity, and my name gets in front of many qualified potential clients — of course, some of those become new clients! – Nicole Begley, owner, Nicole Begley Photography

Infomercials

The biggest success came from producing one half-hour infomercial without a script and with a studio audience that was also not scripted. That infomercial debuted in October 2011 and resulted in the largest spike in sales for the company. – Michael Lindell, inventor and CEO, MyPillow

Dave started writing for BusinessNewsDaily as a freelance writer in May 2011 and was hired as a staff writer in October 2011. He graduated from Marist College with a B.A. in Communication and a business minor. Prior to writing for BusinessNewsDaily, he interned at The Poughkeepsie Journal and two Marist College publications. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Dave on Google+.